462 REPORT—1883. 
" produce the greatest effect on the length of the spectrum. It was shown that a 
mixture of 1 per cent. of benzene in alcohol, or of cymene in turpentine, or vice 
versd, could be easily detected by this method. 
8. The application of Bisulphide of Carbon to the Scouring of Wool. By 
Professor WiLLtAM Ramsay, Ph.D. 
After a short review of the old processes of cleansing and scouring wool, the 
author described the process invented by Mr, Mullings, of George Street, London, 
known as the ‘turbine process.’ It consists in dissolving out smut and fatty 
matters from wool by means of carbon disulphide. To effect this the wool is 
placed in a special form of hydro-extractor, covered with a dome-shaped cover, 
evaporation of the solvent being guarded against by water-joints. Bisulphide of 
carbon is then admitted, so as thoroughly to soak the wool, and the machine being 
caused to rotate the solvent is expelled; the last traces are driven out by admit- 
ting cold water. The features of the process, which distinguish it from all other 
similar ones, and which secure its success, are the avoidance of a high temperature 
and the use of cold water in expelling the solvent. The bisulphide runs. into 
settling tanks, where it is separated from the water; and thence it is removed to 
retorts and distilled, leaving a residue of suint. Attention was drawn to the fact 
that the French bisulphide, made from coke, gave much better results than the 
English bisulphide, made from charcoal. 
The wool cleansed by this method has a better appearance, gives a finer yarn, 
and may be woven into a fabric preferable to that given by the old process. 
It is calculated that the annual saving in England which would be caused by 
the introduction of the turbine process would amount to close on a million and a 
half sterling. 
Details of the process were given in the paper. 
9. On the Conversion of Oleic Acid into Palmitic Acid, and Fusions with 
Caustic Alkalies at High Temperatures. By Wm. Lant Carpenter, 
BA. BScs LOS. 
At the March meeting of the London Section of the Society of Chemical 
Industry the author drew attention to the mode of procedure whereby M. Radisson, 
of Marseilles, was able to carry out on an industrial scale Warentrapp’s reaction 
(announced in 1841) of 
C,,H,,0, + 2K HO =C,,H,, KO, + C,H,KO, + H,. 
At the last Paris Industrial Exhibition M. Fournier, of Marseilles, the largest 
stearic acid maker in France, exhibited palmitic acid candles which had been made 
from oleic acid by this process. 
Considerable interest was excited at the meeting above referred to as to the 
exact way in which these potash fusions on so large a scale were carried out, and 
the author was asked for many details which he was then unable to give. Since 
then he has spent a week at Marseilles studying the process, and now submits 
some new details to the Section. 
The fusion is effected in a vessel called a ‘cartouche.’ It is cylindrical, with a 
dished bottom of cast iron, 3°20 metres in diameter; the sides and top are of 
wrought iron, 1°30 metre in height ; a mechanical agitator works in the interior, 
and an exit-pipe leads through a coke tower-condenser to a gasholder, to collect 
the hydrogen. ‘The fire-bars are about 1°75 metre from the bottom of the car- 
touche, and the fire is only a few centimetres thick. At the commencement 
1,500 kilogrammes of oleic acid and 2,500 kilogrammes of caustic potash ley at 48° 
B. sp. gr., are pumped into the cartouche, and the temperature is slowly raised to 
300° C. Evolution of hydrogen commences at 290°. Between that and 320° the 
reaction takes place, and at 320° the process is arrested by the injection of steam 
by a Giffard’s injector. All access of air must be avoided during the operation, 
